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krysley's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Sexism, and Violence
Minor: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Alcoholism, and Child abuse
mar's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Death of parent, Death, Homophobia, and Violence
Moderate: Chronic illness, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Suicide
Minor: Gun violence, Antisemitism, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, and Child abuse
prettycloud's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Murder and Homophobia
Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Biphobia, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Violence, Gun violence, and Suicide
This is a noir book, so it fulfills the genre conventions of people getting beat up and shot at regularly (including getting murdered that way). Many of the characters are LGBT+, and they experience period-appropriate homophobic violence and threats to their livelihood. The narrator ends up in a hospital at one point, but no harm to her body or agency takes place there. The narrator's mentor has multiple sclerosis but works in spite of it.stubbornjerk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book did that, with Detective Willowjean Parker assisting Detective Lillian Pentecost on the case of Abigail Collins' murder. It covered topics like violence against women, homophobia during the 50s, poverty, and a lot more. It's not a hard book to read, but definitely not for the faint of heart.
It was definitely worth the read. Not as pulpy as I thought it'd be, but definitely a little cartoonish on some fronts. I mean, c'mon, a traveling ex-carnie bisexual detective? Think about it.
Though, I do think more thought put towards POC could have been considered, since this tackled a lot of things that touches on the lives of POC at the time. I pointed this out in my notes but I'm pretty sure that at the time the case is set in, Japanese people were in internment camps and the most we get of mentions of non-White American goings-on was mostly to point out that this was post-World War II.
I would have hated seeing anything mishandled, but to say that these things weren't relevant during the time this was set in, especially in a city like New York, it will have been impossible to miss it even in passing. I was reading along to the audiobook (Kirsten Potter's reading was fantastic despite minor hiccups), so I'm pretty sure I didn't miss any indicators that any of the cast of characters were POC. Almost all of them were some shade of white, though I'd love to imagine that Graham Hollis wasn't.
Graphic: Misogyny, Death of parent, Child abuse, Violence, Murder, Death, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Police brutality
Minor: Antisemitism and Homophobia